Your Purpose

The notion of purpose causes many of us distress and anxiety. We try to determine our purpose by collectively evaluating our natural abilities, interests, and those seemingly random events and connections that we classify as chance or fate. No matter how much we worry and will ourselves to come to a clear conclusion, our amateur analysis provides us with more questions than answers and can leave us frustrated and frozen with fear.

The short answer is that your purpose is to advance the life of others. How you do that is what you will have to discover so your question is not what is your purpose, but how you will reach it. You may be an educator, an artist, an inventor, a scientist, or a chef. You may be a community activist, a volunteer, or the first person in your family or neighborhood to graduate from college. You may raise your family in a loving home and be a positive role model to your children or other children in your life. You may provide food to those who are struggling, a home to children without one, or encouragement and support to those who feel broken. There is purpose in all of that.

Your purpose is found in the journey of discovering yourself. As you grow and gain life experiences, you develop the confidence to accept that you have purpose, the clarity to gravitate in the direction of what sustains you, and the strength to work—and it is work—that purpose out. You do not find fulfillment suddenly. Fulfillment of purpose does not announce itself in some magical moment with fireworks and blaring trumpets. You are fulfilled through the process of discovering who you are purposed to become; someone who fully lives and by example, promotes and encourages progression in others.